Neither of the victories—Friday’s over Yale and Saturday’s over Princeton—was secured as the Harvard men’s hockey team would have liked. But they were victories just the same, enough to push the Crimson (2-2-1, 2-2-1 ECACHL) back up to .500, and so nobody complained.

Harvard dominated its contest against the Bulldogs (0-6-0, 0-4-0) throughout, yet the Crimson had to wait until the waning minutes of a tight, clean night for its first goal.

And the game against Princeton (2-3-1, 2-2-0)—well, it was just ugly, filled with 53 penalty minutes and 14 goals.

But after three consecutive disappointing performances offensively, the Crimson will take the 11 goals and four points however it can get them.

Said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 simply, “We accomplished what we set out to do over the weekend.”

HARVARD 8, PRINCETON 6

To say it was a “very choppy, sloppy game,” as Donato later did, was to put it kindly.

The two teams combined for 21 whistles and 15 man-advantage situations, and though the Crimson power play had converted only 5.9 percent in its first three contests, the unit went 4-for-9 on Saturday.

Two of those goals—and the turning point of the game—came during Princeton’s boarding major, apportioned when Erik Pridham’s hit knocked Harvard freshman Dave MacDonald to the ground 10:36 into the second period.

“The only thing I would say,” Donato said of the blow, “is as a former player, when guys get hit from behind—to me, that’s as dangerous as it gets in hockey. Whether it’s for or against our team, I think that’s something that needs to be eliminated from hockey.”

Nearly two minutes into the subsequent power play, forward Dan Murphy put the Crimson up 3-2 when he knocked in a rebound from Tiger goaltender B.J. Sklapsky.

But 3:20 still remained on the penalty, and Pridham remained in the box.

Less than three minutes later, Harvard scored on Dylan Reese’s screened blueline slapshot.

And finally, three seconds after Princeton’s return to full strength following five grueling minutes of penalty killing, Crimson assistant captain Tom Cavanagh pushed home a puck stolen by classmate Brendan Bernakevitch.